The South Carolina governor drops by to visit a friend and says he has no plans yet after his term ends

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February 21, 2010 5:21AM (UTC)

Sometime late Saturday afternoon, a familiar face appeared in CPAC's speakers' lounge (visible from the press area in the ballroom), one that's been more comfortable in, say, Buenos Aires than at conservative gatherings lately.

Yes, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford had stopped by.

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Sanford, a Republican who was censured by the state's GOP-controlled House last month for his bizarre jaunt to Argentina (by way of, according to what he had aides say, the Appalachian Trail), was in Washington for the National Governors Association's annual meeting. When Politico's Jonathan Martin, CNN's Peter Hamby and I chased him down on his way out, he told us he was just at the conference to visit a friend. That was about as newsy as the exchange got. Sanford did say he wants to stay in South Carolina once his term is up, but he has no plans for what he'll do. "I'll figure it out when I get there," he said.

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Mike Madden

Mike Madden is Salon's Washington correspondent. A complete listing of his articles is here. Follow him on Twitter here.